Start With Seeds or Clones.
Planting a seed hydro gardening
You have two choices when you start an indoor crop. The first is to plant seeds you buy, collect yourself, or get from other growers. Soak the seeds in room temperature water for a few hours (or overnight) before planting them—throw out any seeds that float because they will not germinate. Plant the viable seeds in a tray with coconut coir or rock-wool cubes that are damp (but not soggy) and keep the trays covered with plastic.
Choose a Simple Setup.
Coir planters
You have many choices for how to grow your crop indoors. Pots with a light soil mix (coir with vermiculite or perlite) are inexpensive, need minimal attention, and are less prone to problems than hydroponic systems, in which the plants’ roots are exposed and grow in a solution of water and fertilizer.
Let There Be Lights.
Plant growing under light
You can grow herbs and houseplants on windowsills, but to grow bigger, leafier plants and even flower buds, you’ll need lights for your indoor garden. The most effective are expensive full-spectrum grow lights (metal halide and high-pressure sodium), which require electrical work to install. LED lights are costly to buy, but they use less power, and you can just plug them in. Compact fluorescent lights produce less light than the others, but it is still enough to grow a few plants through to flowering—and they’re the cheapest to operate.
Raise Leafy Plants.
Fans to help plant stems grow stronger. Give the seedlings you planted 18 hours of light daily and keep their roots damp, but not soggy. Soon, they will be growing taller and branching out. Feed them a liquid organic fertilizer blended for the vegetative stage of growth. Be sure to carefully follow the dilution directions and feeding schedules. Feeding your plants excess nutrients doesn’t make plants grow bigger or faster and, in fact, can damage your crop.
5. Switch on the Flowers.
When your plants reach maturity—typically 8 to 10 weeks after you start feeding them—they are ready to bloom. Natural changes in the amount of daylight hours trigger plants to flower outdoors. You can simulate the same changes in your indoor garden by setting the timer to turn the lights on and off every 12 hours.
